Welcome to The Foxgrove, where we believe that everyone has the potential to create music. On the one-year anniversary of our founding, meet our latest class of newly minted electronic music makers.

Nick Ayala is a senior cultural strategist at sparks and honey. Originally from Michigan, he has lived in New York City for seven years.

Describe your relationship to music.
Music is self-expression and self-reflection. It captures and creates moods, emotions and ideas. I listen to a variety of music. The heavy rotation tends to fall on bands like Radiohead, Modest Mouse and The Smiths, but you can never go wrong with '60s Motown or A Tribe Called Quest.

Why did you come to The Foxgrove?
I learned about The Foxgrove through a colleague, who introduced me to the founders, Natalie and David. With my agency's COO, we scheduled an electronic music production class for a handful of the strategists, feeling that the skills learned might be analogous to the work that we do—specifically our daily culture briefing—allowing us to view it in a new light.

How was it?
It was energizing. Crafting a track forces you to think in ways that might be different from how you typically think, while illuminating your approach to problem-solving in a new situation. How does this song flow into the next? What happens if I shift the tempo? Do I go with my instinct, or should I be analytical? What feeling am I trying to evoke in the listener?

Who/what’s your creative inspiration?
I absolutely love to travel and experience new cultures whenever possible. Life experiences and history.

Any future musical projects?
I have no grand plan, but I certainly want to spend more time creating music.

Tell us a fun fact about you.
I once explained the difference between hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes to Andrew W.K.

Get in touch with your inner creativity, join the new breed of music-makers by taking a class with us at The Foxgrove.

This gem is brought to you by The Hunt, , The Foxgrove's blog that looks into the electronic music and DJ world in the lenses of fashion, lifestyle, art and culture. If you'd like to contribute, find us at info@thefoxgrove.com.